The way things are
by kooliogrrl45
Summary: about a girl named haruhi who stumbled across team gai....not very long but ill try to make next one longer....no flaming but plz review! sorry a few misspellings!
1. Chappy 1

Koolio- Tenten, read the disclaimer.  
Tenten- no.  
Koolio- are you sure? Tenten- yes, now get the hell away!! koolio-two words, Tenten. Neji fangirls.  
Tenten-*grumbes* fine. she doent own anything in this except Haruhi. Happy?  
Koolio- ya. Go away.

I roared for the world to hear, my back to the people i was about to lose.  
"no!!" is all i had to say. it explained it all. just "no." it displayed all of my emotions on a silver platter that the whole world at the moment i didnt care. my teammate was dying. No, scratch that- my teamMATES were dying. both of them.  
"Don't......wory.....we'll be.....fine.." a weak voice gasped. Tenten. She was always trying to be brave. always acting like it was no big deal. It was all bullshit, and we knew it.  
"Shut up, Tenten!We all know you're NOT gonna be fine! You'll be lucky if you LIVE!!" i exploded at her, turning to her and gesturing to her wounds.  
"You don't have any right to say that!!And you know you don't"  
"i... wouldn't....say that... Haruhi," a vey weak Neji murmured."She'll only keep on going.....don't...make it... harder"  
I could hear their hearts giving in, thier breathing more ragged by the second, and I knew it was the end.  
"Goodbye, my friends," i whispered to them one last time, wanting I could only have a minute more with them. Tears ran down my face as I dragged them together for the final moment.  
They only nodded as they gave in to eternal sleep.

My eyes shot open. I was drawing my air in with gasps. Adrenalin rushed through my veins. That dream.  
Every night it happened diferently. They always died, though. Sometimes from poisoning, sometimes from disease, sometime from injuries. But this time didnt make sense. They...? I didnt know.  
I yawned, stretched, and sat up. The stars still glimmered in the sky. i Knew i couldn't sleep, so I decided to head to the training grounds.  
I got dressed and tried to look into the mirror. I was so tiny it was hard.  
As I peered into it, I liked what I saw. My dirty blonde hair was loosed, at elbow length, with my semi long bangs covering one of my bright, bloodred eyes. My dark skin blended well with my signature black hoodie, witch was loose around my torso and ended at the end of the pockets on my black jeans. The hood remained down at its usual position on my first few vertibrae. The jeans had big holes on the knees. I was wearing my dirty black sneakers.  
I looked beautiful, in a dark way.  
I tied my forehead protector around my neck.  
The walk to the training grounds was almost nonexistant.  
The moment i got there, i sat down in the middle of the meadow and meditated. Soon, i had heard some rustling, light breath and footsteps.  
"You're here early, Haruhi," Neji's deep voice sounded mildly surprised. I heard his footsteps closen as he neared me, and then a slight breeze as he sat beside me.  
"Yeah, sure," I mumbled, opening my eyes and laying back with my hands behind my head."When'll Tenten get here?" As if answering my question,  
she popped out of the bushes.  
"Wow, Haruhi, you're up early," she said, her beautiful chocolate eyes wide."I thought you were always late"  
"No, but I just got here," I sighed, "Now come sit"  
And, together, we watched the sunrise.

"NOW, MY YOUTHFUL BLOSSOMING STUDENTS, TODAY WE ARE GOING TO LEARN THE YOUTHFUL ART OF NINJUTSU!!" Gai screamed, "SO PREPARE YOUR YOUTHFUL SELVES,  
MY YOUTHFUL BLOSSOMS"  
" I'm not sorry, Gay sensei, but we're not flowers and we actually know ninjutsu, unlike yourself, who looks like a dead, decayed frog," I commented."Much offense," I added. Neji smirked, and Tenten looked like she was about to crack up.  
Gai grabbed me by the neck of my hoodie, lifted my very short form and shook me. "DON'T SHOW SUCH DISRESPECT TO YOUR SENSEI!!" he screamed, though this time it wasn't out of excitement. I fake grinned and put my hands in my hoodie's pockets.  
'Kage bushin no jutsu!' I thought, doing the signs in my pocket, and silently a clone appeared behind Gai, holding a kunai. It crept behind him and held the kunai to his throaght.  
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Neji and Tenten's eyes grew wide.  
"Put me down NOW," I said, my voice low with menace. I stopped grinning and glared at him.  
I probably looked like i was going to kill him, because he slowly put me down and backed away.  
Tenten, throwing a kunai, popped the clone.  
Relaxing into a grin, I turned to my teammates. They looked kinda weird, like they were weary, almost afraid of me. Their eyes were hard and confused. I wouldn't usually act this way with Gai.  
"Why'd you take it out on Gai?" whispered Tenten.  
I stopped using the fake smile. "He needs to shut up," I muttered."He talks like everything's fine in the world because he wants it to be.  
It's not. And you guys all know it's not"  
All of our minds went back to the day we met...

(flashback)

"Let me GO!!" I screamed, kicking as best as I could at the huge man carrying me. The steel cuffs around my wrists that he was holding me from cut into my skin. Blood flowed down my arms.  
He carried me with his arm extended fully in front of him. He held my tiny body as if it was air- it was effortless to him.  
He reached out with his other arm and slapped me in the face. To him it would've been like hitting a wall. I was tiny, but I was strong and handled pain well. I still couldn't manage wincing, though.  
This was clearly the responce he liked. he stepped on the shackles on my ankles and pulled my cuffs up as hard as he could. I cried out in pain.  
It felt like I was being ripped in two.  
He let go, but i kept on yelling for help. "Shut up, shrimp," the big man snarled, and i instantly did, from fear of more pain.  
We burst into a large clearing, where two kids were training. One was a paleish boy with long, black hair and lavender eyes with no pupils that stared at the man coldly. He wore a white T-shirt and black shorts and his right arm and leg were bandaged. He had a pouch tied to his thigh. The other was a tannish girl, her brunette hair tied into two buns that made her look like a bear, with liquid chocolate eyes that glanced worridly between the man and I. She wore a pink chinese vest and black caprees. She, too, had a pouch tied to her thigh.  
"Anyone here named Tenten?" The man asked hoarsely, glaring at the kids.  
"Yes," the girl said weakly.  
"Well, here's a gift from a guy in southern Japan," he muttered, throwing me across the feild. I skidded across the grass headfirst and landed in front of the kids.  
"Don't touch me," I said with menace and got up, rubbing my jaw.  
The girl threw a kunai and pinned my hands to the ground by the cuffs. She kneeled, picked up my face and examined it. All the while I did the only thing I could do- I glared at her.  
"Neji," she called, "go get Tsudane!! She's hurt, badly!!" Her voice was unusually high. Like she cared.  
The boy nodded and ran into the forest.  
"Sorry," the girl murmured, and elbowed my spine.  
The last thing I remembered was her apologetic face.

(end of flashback)

"  
Everything went silent. Gai was probably sulking in a far away corner, while Neji and Tenten were sympathetic or something. I didn't really care that much, and they knew that, but they could't help it. They hadn't been through as much as I had...I THOUGHT.... But I was curios what they HAD been through.  
"Anyone have interesting stories?" I asked. They both nodded. "Tenten, you can go first. If it's long, thats okay. It'll be our training today"  
she blushed. " It's really long...are you sure you wanna hear it"  
Neji and I nodded. "It's good to know more about people so you can understand them better," Neji commented.  
She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and sighed."Okay. When i was young, about three, I had a mother and a brother. My dad had died from assasins- this was in China, and we were at war at the time. The odds of losing were almost certian, and to protect me, my mother had put me in a Japanese thought that a nice family would adopt me- and it seemed like they had at first- but it turned out to be more like they had BOUGHT me. I ended up being their punching bag. I tried and tried to get help, but no one cared. I eventually tried to join ninja school, but they had to get approval from my didnt want me to be strong. And so I was sent away from that.  
"From then on, they wanted me to be in pain, one way or another. They starved me, hit me, abused me, insulted me, and once they even branded me." Her usually sweet face turned into a grimace as she pulled up the pink vest. Near her waist, on the extreme lower right part of her back, was a huge black scar in the shape of a scythe."As I was saying," she continued, her high voice getting angrier by the second,"They loved my pain. At school I was always the bullied, weak one, and that only made them happier. They said crying was a weakness, and if i cried, I would get punished.  
"One night, I had had enough. The parents were feeling very cruel that night, and in my room some tears were breaking through. They were silent, and if my parents-"she said the word with distaste-" came in one minute later, I wouldn't have had to go through the pain to get that cursed scar. Immediately, when they saw me crying, they dragged me down to the basementwhere no one could hear me, took out the poker, and scratched that into my skin.  
She let down her shirt."All that happened when I was 6. When they looked at me, all they saw was an enemy- a Chinese. I was like a war prisoner. And when I was 7, it got so much worse." I could see Tenten paling. She sat and curled up into a ball. In all the years I had known her, I had never seen her do that.  
So that had to be really bad.  
"You don't have to keep on going, if it causes you pain," I said softly.  
"No, you deserve to know," she said, her voice muffled by her knees. "By the time I was 7, they had taken it to another level. They began to torture me. They would rope me in the basement, starve me, and eat all they could in front of my face. They would keep a fire going and force an arm to stay over it until they felt like doing something else with me. They would tie my to a pole and cut me a hundred times. They would lock me in my room with my windows opened and barred, when it was five degrees outside and leave me with nothing to wear but a shirt and "  
"Stop," Neji said."This is too ....stop. Please"  
"Neji?" I asked, would you like to go next"  
"No, it would make me feel like a wimp." He smiled.

I heard a noise. I saw some rustling in the trees out in the black outside.  
I instantly grabbed my huge schythe for protection. It was dark, like me, and had a bloodred blade. It curved wickedly.  
"If you know what's good for you..." I threatened to the person outside of my window. It came closer.  
Tenten jumped through the window."Hiaz!!" she said casually as she landed next to immediately plopped down on my bed.  
"God, Tenten, don't do that!I almost sliced you in half!Can't you use the door?" I complained. When she came, she always used some bizzare entry,  
and once she came through my basement. I had thought that she was a burglar. She still has a scar from that stunt.  
I chuckled darkly.  
"What?" Tenten said slowly, "are you thinking about the time I came from the basement"  
"So, why are you here?" I asked, ignoring her question."Is it about earlier today"  
"Maybe," she said uncomfortably. It seemed like she didn't want to talk. She wanted me to use my bloodline limit.  
Which was to read minds.  
I clapped my hands together and sat cross legged on the ,I sifted into her memories until I found the one she wanted me to see....

(flashback in Tenten's POV)

I screamed.  
The pain was felt like I was ran over by a riot, punched by Tsudane, bitten by a snake, and ripped in half. My 'parents' had done this to me. why? what did I do to them?  
they put the poker back into the fire.  
My 'dad' walked over to me and lifted me by the neck of my shirt. He violently punched me over and over again on my stomach. A crazy grin lit up his features. By each punch he delivered, more blood flew out of my mouth and the closer I was to death. He seemed to like that.  
When my pain no longer amused him, he threw me as hard as he could against the wall.  
Blood smeared as i slid down.  
He then picked me up by my wrists with one hand and pinned me facefirst to the wall. His other hand held my ankles so I could't excape. My 'mom'  
slid behind me, picked up part of my shirt, and scratched a figure in my back with a red-hot poker.  
The pain was unbearable.  
They tossed me into my room and locked the door behind left me to suffer in the darkness.

(end of flashback but still Tenten's POV)

Haruhi was speechless.  
I knew she had felt my pain during it, and she was probably shocked, knowing someone had been through anything near what she had been through.  
As always, her face was hateful and her red eyes were glaring, but I thought i saw a spark of...sadness?...symathy?...something.  
"Um, Haruhi, you okay?" I said to break the scilence. She barely nodded.  
And I saw what had just been a spark turn into an explosion.  
She was murdurously enraged. She hated them more than even I did. By not moving she was trying to keep her emotions in check.  
Then she did the unexpected. The impossible. She, Haruhi, pulled me into a hug.

(end of Tenten's POV)

I HOPE YOU LIKE IT!!! ITS MY FIRST FIC SO REVIEW AND NO FLAMING!!! THANKS!!!XD 


	2. Chappy 2

Koolio-inuyasha, read the disclaimer.

inuyasha-how the hell did I get here!?!?

Koolio-just read the disclaimer.

Inuyasha-she doesnt own anything here except haruhi.k?!?!

"Where is the real Haruhi and what did you do to her?" Tenten demanded. She shoved me off of her and looked at me like I was an alien or something.

"Right here," I said flatly, acting more like my own self."What do I look like? Naruto?"

Not that I had anything against the kid, but make me spend a day with him, and, well......let's just say that he's gonna have to take an extra visit to the hospital.

"Sure, sure," she muttered. "When Hell freezes over."

"Hell's already frozen," I said in the usual steely tone I used.

Changing the subject, she walked over to my gigantic schythe. "It's beautiful. Lethal," she said softly. And I had to agree with her. If it wasn't, it wouldn't belong to me.

"May I?" she asked, fingering Zenpou (the name of the schythe) like she wanted to hold it. I nodded, resisting the urge to smile. Gai could barely lift it. I was almost certian she couldn't.

She wrapped her fingers around Zenpou, and looking like she anticipated using it, tried to lift it.

Key word: TRIED.

She tried as hard as she could, to no avail. The wicked, jewl studded, bloodred blade that looked so lightwieght seemed to be mocking her.

In defeat, she turned to me. "How do you even get that thing off the GROUND?!?!?!" she demanded.

"It's easy," I replied. "Just train a lot and soon you'll be able to budge it!!" I mocked optimism.

"I've never seen you fight with it," Tenten mused,"Maybe tomorrow we can duel." She said it excitedly.

"Sure," I said in a dead voice, but in the inside, I was kinda excited, too.

Tenten and I were standing in the middle of the training grounds, with Neji and Gai spectating.

"GO!!" Gai bellowed.

My fingers tightened around Zenpou. I was gigving Tenten a huge advantage by not attacking first. The tip of Zenpou was buried in the ground, waiting to show its power.

Tenten's eyes scanned my body, looking for an opening.

"C'mon, attack already!!" I yelled in impatiance. This was too boring.

I squeezed, sending some chakra into Zenpou. It glowed red, spitting fire out parts of it. Zenpou: the Hellfire Blade.

Tenten decided it was time to fight, so she sommoned a katana for herself. Holding it in flawless stance, she charged at me. But flawless wasn't enough to get through Zenpou.

Lightning speed, when the katana was a few centimeters away, I jumped up and slashed hard to the side. Tenten stepped back, but not fast enough, because I sliced a pretty deep gash in her side. She only gripped her side for a second. Next thing I knew, she was charging me and striking me over and over again, never stopping, never tiring.

But I was. Really fast. Wielding Zenpou in its true power takes an un imaginable amount of chakra to use, and even though I had more of it than Naruto, I was almost out.

I had to do something. FAST.

I swatted Tenten away.

"Gokiyon: lightning destruction jutsu!!" I roared, burying Zenpou's tip in the soft earth. Black lightning sparked in the dirt, starting from Zenpou to Tenten's feet. The ground shudderd, and then a tiny ball of dark matter floated in front of her.

It exploded. Everything within 1,000 meters was covered in dark blue light.

Chunks of dirt and wood pelted me, brusing and cutting. About 500 kunai flew at me, and all I could do was bear the pain and hold on to Zenpou's handle.

Suddenly, the explosion stopped and the sun was visible again.

I fell to my knees. I heard 3 pairs of footsteps sprinting towards me.

I leaned forward on my hands and coughed up blood.

Neji and Tenten loomed over me, worried expressios plastered on their faces.

"Go get Tsudane, Neji," Tenten instucted. But he didn't budge.

"She barely has enough chakra to live," he whispered."Last time I checked, she had more chakra than the Kyuubi and Shikaku combined. It's unreal."

"Gai sensei, go get Tsudane ASAP!!" Tenten yelled, "Haruhi needs immediate medical assistance!!" The green beast of Kahona ran off in a blur.

"I'm burning," I moaned, "Did you poison the kunai?" I looked up at the weapons misstress.

"Yes, how many hit you?" she asked urgently.

"All 500," Neji said quietly.

"Shit," she cussed under her breath. She turned away from us and strode off.

I couldn't even kneel anymore. With a thump I hit the ground.

"Tsudane's here," Neji announced softly.

As if on cue, Tsudane appeared out of the remaining trees that surrounded the clearng we were in. She glanced at me once and then sprinted towards me full speed. For some reason, I saw Hyuuga Hinata follow her.

Once they had reached me, Hinata activated her Biyakugan and gasped.

"What?" Tenten asked, returning to my side.

"You'll see," Hinata said in a small voice.

"Men," Tsudane commanded, "Carry the schythe to Haruhi's house. Neji and Gai will fill you in about what happened. Tenten," she asked when the men left, "What happened?"

Tenten and the Hokage walked off to discuss what happened while Hinata was left in charge of me.

"How did you get all those scars?" she asked me when they were out of earshot.

"Do you know my story?" I asked weakly. She nodded."I got them from past owners."

She made a face but didn't say anything.

Tenten and the Hokage came running back. "Take your hoodie off. We need to see your wounds better," Tenten said.

I reluctantly removed my hoodie. At least I could do that.

The shirt I wore was kind of like a tank top. It was, of course, black, and was a T-shirt cut at the ribs so it revealed my stomach.

"Oh my God," Tenten said, her voice getting higher with each word, "Haruhi, what HAPPENED to you"

Where was I? I heard a beeping noise and felt a small sting in my left arm.

Oh, yeah. I was in the hospital. Tenten knocked me out. Again. 'God, how many times does she have to do that?' I thought, annoyed. She had crossed the line.

I opened my eyes to find a worried Naruto staring at me. "Good, you're awake!" he said loudly. "I was kinda worried there, ya know. Don't do that again.  
Anyway, Granny Tsudane said you were fine, and she told me to tell you to put these on." He tossed a pile of clothes at me. I instictively caught it.  
"She wants you to report to her as soon as you dress. We have a mission. I'm going, so is Tenten and Neji." He strode out of the room.

I unfolded the clothes to see what I usually wore. I sighed in relief. Soon I was walking inside Tsudane's office. Tenten, Naruto and Neji were already there.

The hokage coughed. "Today you are being assigned a very long, difficult, important mission. You can't fail; if you do, it might lead to the fall of Kahona.

"I've chosen you all for various reasons. Naruto, I chose you for your kindness and giant chakra reserve. It'll be important on this mission. Neji, I chose you for your Biyakugan and Jyuuken, and also your tendancy to get things done fast. Tenten, I chose you for your compassion and your throwing skills.  
Haruhi, I chose you for your ability to stay levelheaded in a battle, your Limit, the ability to do what's right for your friends even if you'd die to do it, and your massive strength. All of these qualities make you guys the perfect team for this mission.

"The mission I need you to do is to assasinate Oruchimaru-teme. Do you understand?"

We all nodded, silent. I could hear the panic in my team's minds.

"Haruhi, you're the leader of this mission," Tsudane decided. "You can say goodbye to friends, but after packing, I want you to set out right away. You need to get to Oruchimaru as fast as you can. Understand?"

"Hai," I replied, bowing. We departed.

Tenten, Neji, and Naruto stood around me at the entrance to Kahona as I planned out the formations we'd be traveling in.

"Neji, you're going to be at the front of the line. I need you to see all things as we're traveling. Naruto, you'll be after Neji in case he needs help. Use kage bushin. I'll go after Naruto, for helping you, Tenten, in the same way, but I'll need to be in the back end because of Zenpou. Tenten, you'll go after me, and you'll use your weapon skills to kill any enemy behind us. Got it?" I looked them.

"Hai!" they all said together.

"Okay. We set off now!!" I yelled.

We all jumped into the bushes.

All was quiet.

Not a bird had chirped. Nor did anything made any noise whatsoever. It had made the sound of the leaves swishing while we jumped impossibly loud, and so I had decided that we should settle for the night. "We're getting too loud. We need to set camp," I told Tenten, Neji and Naruto. "Someone go find a clearing to light a fire in. Someone else find firewood. I'll go search for a place to sleep in the trees and the remaining person will come with me.  
Got it?" I instructed them. They had all nodded.

As it ended up, Tenten went with me, Neji searched for the clearing, and Naruto got the firewood. I had a bit of grumbling about that one, but in the end he had gone gracefully.

I carried Zenpou on my back.

"You know, I'm not your superior," I said uncomfortably to Tenten while flying through the trees, "I'm just a teammate organizing the plans and stuff."

"Sure," she replied quietly."I'll tell the rest of the team that."

I heard a choked gasp and then creul laughter coming the direction she was in. I had Zenpou out in an instant, ready to defend myself, but it wasn't me who needed saving. A tall, wiry man was jumping in pace with me, carrying Tenten and holding a kunai to her throaght.

"Come with me, if you want her to live," the man said coldly, and disappeared into the trees to my left.

I followed.

After a while of follow the leader, a small temple grew out of the horizon. The man escorted Tenten into it, and I had no choice but to follow. After turning a hundred turns, we walked into a huge corridor.

Naruto and Neji also had someone holding a kunai to their throaghts. They were pushed up against the wall and their hand were tied behind their backs.

"What is this for?" I asked the wiry man as he tied up Tenten and pushed her against the wall with my other comrades.

"Its a game we like to play," he said, "And it involves a lot of decisions. The rules are; One, If you quit the game, all of your friends get killed,two, you do something minor wrong, the friend in trial is hurt, and three, if you make a big mistake, the friend in trial gers killed. You win if you keep them alive for a day, and you lose if one gets killed in a day. If you lose, you have to play again."

"The first decision," a fat man said, "Is a big one. Bring out the boy." Another man walked in holding a big bag. He dumped it and out came the small, I'd say about 5 year old boy.

"His life or her's," the tall one said, getting behind Tenten and forcing her head up with a kunai. "You decice."

The life between a best friend or a small boy. I killed myself mentally for falling into a trap at the beginning of the mission.

I didn't know what to do.

hope you like it!! I THINK its longer than the last one, but i'm not sure. its a bit choppy. sorry if it makes no sense!  
XD XD XD XD XD XD 


End file.
